Power Restoration Efforts

Suppose a tree falls onto a distribution line causing an outage….

As soon as our dispatchers, personnel who constantly monitor our electrical system, detect a problem or receive an outage call, they will assign a line worker to investigate. Once the line worker has discovered the exact cause of the problem he or she will contact the dispatch center, a 24-hour center that constantly monitors our electrical system. The dispatcher in charge then will send other line workers to other points near the source of the outage. They will de-energize the damaged line and transfer most of our affected customers from the lines without power to lines that have power, thus restoring service to most of our customers before the damaged line is repaired.

While the line workers are rerouting the power, a line crew is assigned to fix the damage. The individuals on the line crew, like line workers, are electrical experts who have specialized equipment to help them get their jobs done quickly.

Line crews are on-call 24 hours a day. If they are at home at the time of an outage, they will be telephoned and asked to report to work immediately. They will load equipment and tools into their trucks and drive to the outage site where they will repair the damage.

Once the line has been repaired, the line workers will re-energize the line and power will flow to all of our customers affected by the outage.

Sometimes the extent of the damage to the electrical system is severe and widespread throughout Piqua Power System's service area. When this occurs, we cannot respond to every outage at once. Instead, the outages must be prioritized.